Dzimas, Maddy's not out there yet, but her son's working on her to move. She's up, probably hot after some fact or another that she's mislaid. I always imagine her by her computer--wherever she's got it stashed--amidst picariously piled papers of mountainous proportions, muttering to herself about "where the hell is that". Just now, she probably made a parthian shot and signed off.

The Absalom parallel is clear, but Faulkner goes beyond creating Sutpen to parallel King David, his Sutpen parallels God. In the beginning, Sutpen is a godlike figure, tearing Sutpen's Hundred out of the chaos. Sutpen gives birth to a trinity. His first child, Bon might be read as a reference to the creation myth found in Genesis. God sees the creation and pronounces it "good," Faulkner puns on this and calls Sutpen's creation "Bon." In the biblical parallel, God sacrifices his son to purify humankind; Sutpen sacrifices Bon to purify his bloodline.

The other two thirds of the trinity would be Judith and Henry who form "that single personality with two bodies....." (Vintage 73).

Here are the texts if anyone is interested. They are quite long, so I won't post them here.

2 Samuel 11-15, 18 (It would be interesting to know which translation Faulkner used as his source. In the 30's South, I'd guess the King James Version....anyone know if Faulkner could read the original?)

Not to me. If Faulkner were plotting based on the myth seems he would have followed it more closely. He would also have more ready answers to plot questions than-- I dont remember.I think the story was there, he needed a title, knew the brother kills brother who loves sister story, and named his accordingly--but why twice?

I think we've pretty much exhausted the possibilities of Abasalom for now, don't you? It was an excellent discussion. Thank you very much.

Would you be interested in reading Wild Palms next?

I'm interested in Wild Palms because of how Borges streamlines the typical uber-sentences of Faulkner and how his translation skills and Argentine literary background deepen some of the concepts Faulkner is getting into, e.g. time.

What Faulkner does with time in Absalom is very interesting in terms of time, flashbacks and storytelling...